# CBS apologizes for filming 'Amazing Race' near B-52 memorial in Vietnam **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 25, 2013, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cbs-apologizes-for-filming-amazing-race-near-b-52-memorial-in-vietnam/653921 "2013-03-25T15:15:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![newcomer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e5b9ba/32.png) [@newcomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcomer)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2013, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cbs-apologizes-for-filming-amazing-race-near-b-52-memorial-in-vietnam/653921/61 "2013-03-27T16:21:17Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > People in the US and Vietnam fought and died trying to \*\*protect the kinds of freedoms you take for granted \*\*and CBS provided free airtime propaganda celebrating that defeat. Quite the mystery.:dubious: 😕 I refuse to believe that there can be someone this brainwashed and delusional. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2013, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cbs-apologizes-for-filming-amazing-race-near-b-52-memorial-in-vietnam/653921/62 "2013-03-27T16:32:12Z")
> [@newcomer](#): > > 😕 > > I refuse to believe that there can be someone this brainwashed and delusional. said the person with the freedom to say it. [The people of Vietnam don’t have that freedom](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_of_Vietnam). CBS was broadcasting the official government mantra. It’s sad that you take this fundamental freedom for granted. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2013, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cbs-apologizes-for-filming-amazing-race-near-b-52-memorial-in-vietnam/653921/63 "2013-03-27T16:37:17Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > said the person with the freedom to say it. [The people of Vietnam don’t have that freedom](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_of_Vietnam). CBS was broadcasting the official government mantra. > > It’s sad that you take this fundamental freedom for granted. Wow. Since the government of Vietnam cannot control what CBS ends up airing, you must believe that it was CBS’s desire to propagandize on the government’s behalf. ETA: Aren’t you arguing that certain things shouldn’t be shown on television? That exposure to varying ideas is not desirable? How does that fit with your appreciation of fundamental freedoms? ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2013, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cbs-apologizes-for-filming-amazing-race-near-b-52-memorial-in-vietnam/653921/64 "2013-03-27T17:13:49Z")
“Fundamental freedoms are what made America great, and in order to keep ourselves free we need reasonable restrictions in place on just how much freedom anyone can express at any one time or on any particular subject or in any particular way.” - posted somewhere on the internet by a guy with no sense of irony ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2013, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cbs-apologizes-for-filming-amazing-race-near-b-52-memorial-in-vietnam/653921/65 "2013-03-27T17:20:02Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > Wow. Since the government of Vietnam cannot control what CBS ends up airing, you must believe that it was CBS’s desire to propagandize on the government’s behalf. CBS was under whatever conditions given them to operate in the country. They chose to regurgitate the state sponsored message and for this they apologized. > [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > ETA: Aren’t you arguing that certain things shouldn’t be shown on television? That exposure to varying ideas is not desirable? How does that fit with your appreciation of fundamental freedoms? No I’m not making that argument at all. I never said CBS shouldn’t air the propaganda. If they wish to be the Communist Broadcasting System that’s their call. It doesn’t appear to be their goal so that is why they apologized. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2013, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cbs-apologizes-for-filming-amazing-race-near-b-52-memorial-in-vietnam/653921/66 "2013-03-27T17:26:09Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > CBS was under whatever conditions given them to operate in the country. They chose to regurgitate the state sponsored message and for this they apologized. > > No I’m not making that argument at all. I never said CBS shouldn’t air the propaganda. If they wish to be the Communist Broadcasting System that’s their call. It doesn’t appear to be their goal so that is why they apologized. Yes a major corporation is communist. Does that actually make any sense to you? ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2013, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cbs-apologizes-for-filming-amazing-race-near-b-52-memorial-in-vietnam/653921/67 "2013-03-27T17:34:42Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > Yes a major corporation is communist. Does that actually make any sense to you? It does in a communist country. Do you have an actually argument beyond not understanding that CBS fucked up and apologized for it? ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2013, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cbs-apologizes-for-filming-amazing-race-near-b-52-memorial-in-vietnam/653921/68 "2013-03-28T05:04:35Z")
They didn’t apologize because they fucked up. They apologized because someone got their panties in a twist and it cost them nothing to apologize. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2013, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cbs-apologizes-for-filming-amazing-race-near-b-52-memorial-in-vietnam/653921/69 "2013-03-28T05:39:01Z")
> [@obfusciatrist](#): > > They didn’t apologize because they fucked up. They apologized because someone got their panties in a twist and it cost them nothing to apologize. uh huh. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2013, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cbs-apologizes-for-filming-amazing-race-near-b-52-memorial-in-vietnam/653921/70 "2013-03-28T06:14:32Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > People in the US and Vietnam fought and died trying to protect the kinds of freedoms you take for granted and CBS provided free airtime propaganda celebrating that defeat. If they fought and died to protect this freedom, I would think they’d be happy that CBS is choosing to exercise it. What better way to show you appreciate a gift than to take it out and use it every day. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2013, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cbs-apologizes-for-filming-amazing-race-near-b-52-memorial-in-vietnam/653921/71 "2013-03-28T06:30:12Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > Eh, the apology didn’t bother me. The plane was shot down within living memory, and two American servicemen died in the crash. If I was a Vietnam vet, I might be pissed about it showing up in a game show too. Sure, the N. Vietnamese won the war and get to show it off as a war trophy, but there must have been 8000 other interesting places in Hanoi to use as a location in the Race. OK, instead of a fairly neutral tourist attraction, lets use the [Hanoi Hilton](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanoi_Hilton). That would really please a lot of vets. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2013, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cbs-apologizes-for-filming-amazing-race-near-b-52-memorial-in-vietnam/653921/72 "2013-03-28T16:51:58Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > If they fought and died to protect this freedom, I would think they’d be happy that CBS is choosing to exercise it. What better way to show you appreciate a gift than to take it out and use it every day. That’s certainly an interesting bit of logic there. You think promoting the glurge from a oppressive regime that someone fought against and died for is a celebration? Huh. You should write a letter to CBS and edumacate them. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2013, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cbs-apologizes-for-filming-amazing-race-near-b-52-memorial-in-vietnam/653921/73 "2013-03-28T17:20:08Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > That’s certainly an interesting bit of logic there. You think promoting the glurge from a oppressive regime that someone fought against and died for is a celebration? Huh. I don’t see the word “celebration” anywhere in my post. You should probably read it again. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2013, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cbs-apologizes-for-filming-amazing-race-near-b-52-memorial-in-vietnam/653921/74 "2013-03-28T17:45:08Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > I don’t see the word “celebration” anywhere in my post. You should probably read it again. no you just said the vets should be happy and appreciative. soooooo, they should be happy and appreciative but not celebrate it. got it. ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2013, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cbs-apologizes-for-filming-amazing-race-near-b-52-memorial-in-vietnam/653921/75 "2013-03-28T20:24:59Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > That’s certainly an interesting bit of logic there. You think promoting the glurge from a oppressive regime that someone fought against and died for is a celebration? You seem unable to see a distinction between acknowledging that something exists and promoting that thing which exists. I didn’t see any promotion of anything beyond knowledge that different parts of the world are different parts of the world. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2013, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cbs-apologizes-for-filming-amazing-race-near-b-52-memorial-in-vietnam/653921/76 "2013-03-28T21:17:39Z")
> [@obfusciatrist](#): > > You seem unable to see a distinction between acknowledging that something exists and promoting that thing which exists. How so? nobody is contesting CBS’s rights. What was contested was the insult of promoting the propaganda of a group that killed American Citizens who were fighting against tyranny. There is no conflict of ideology here. Those who were insulted asked for an apology. They didn’t storm CBS and try to shut them down. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2013, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cbs-apologizes-for-filming-amazing-race-near-b-52-memorial-in-vietnam/653921/77 "2013-03-28T21:31:21Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > How so? nobody is contesting CBS’s rights. What was contested was the insult of promoting the propaganda of a group that killed American Citizens who were fighting against tyranny. There is no conflict of ideology here. Those who were insulted asked for an apology. They didn’t storm CBS and try to shut them down. That’s one way of looking at it. Another way is that they invaded another country to prop up the US’s puppet regime that was despised by the Vietnamese public. I certainly respect those who fought over there and certainly don’t blame them for the decisions of “the best and the brightest”, but I don’t see how anyone except Lee Kwan Yew can think the war was anything but a mistake. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2013, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cbs-apologizes-for-filming-amazing-race-near-b-52-memorial-in-vietnam/653921/78 "2013-03-28T21:34:33Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > If they fought and died to protect this freedom, I would think they’d be happy that CBS is choosing to exercise it. What better way to show you appreciate a gift than to take it out and use it every day. I’ve never understood this line of argument. Obviously plenty of African-Americans have fought in the US military and believed they were doing so to “protect our freedoms” but no thinking person would ever suggest they should celebrate the KKK marching through black neighborhoods holding aloft watermelons. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2013, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cbs-apologizes-for-filming-amazing-race-near-b-52-memorial-in-vietnam/653921/79 "2013-03-28T21:45:32Z")
> [@Ibn\_Warraq](#): > > That’s one way of looking at it. Another way is that they invaded another country to prop up the US’s puppet regime that was despised by the Vietnamese public. you can think that but as a country it has no strategic value so the idea of a puppet government doesn’t really fit. that part of the world was quiet the slaughterhouse by governments against their own people. > [@Ibn\_Warraq](#): > > I certainly respect those who fought over there and certainly don’t blame them for the decisions of “the best and the brightest”, but I don’t see how anyone except Lee Kwan Yew can think the war was anything but a mistake. I have no desire to be the world’s policeman but you can’t deny the genocides that have occurred when we didn’t get involved. War sucks but so does the alternative. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2013, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cbs-apologizes-for-filming-amazing-race-near-b-52-memorial-in-vietnam/653921/80 "2013-03-28T23:26:44Z")
> [@The Great Sun Jester](#): > > Part of growing up is developing a worldview that is larger than yourself; one that can understand and empathize with those who hold different viewpoints. War is the most extreme form of settling differences of opinion, and represents the worst of humanity’s egotism. Hallowing sites of war, especially famous ones, seems to me the height of immaturity–of grudge-holding. Yes, awful misery occurred in all the places you listed, and millions more places you didn’t. But it seems to me the world would be a better place if we focused more on pie eating, topless volleyball, (living) human pyramid building and dancing than on grisly behavior in the distant past. We can still study history, so we never forget what ANY society can become capable of, but there is a poetic beauty in engaging in ribald acts of mirth, of celebrating our better side, in the sorts of places where we once showed our worst. I get what you’re saying. Perhaps contrary to what you might think based on my OP I \*\*\*do \*\*\*think that the Vietnam War was a \*\*\*huge \*\*\*mistake. The best thing to come out of it was the undeniable lesson that you can’t go to war strictly for political reasons. Why? Because to the soldier on the ground it really doesn’t matter. They intrinsically will always be fighting 99% for the ‘small picture’ if you will. So regardless of any aspect of the ‘big picture’ of the Vietnam War, a memorial like the one in that show is 100% about them, the soldiers who simply fought for their country. So those are not the places for any kind of ‘statements’, they should always & only be treated with undeniable respect. And because that one is a special case, a site located on the soil of a foreign country to whom we essentially ‘lost’, it’s infinitely more inappropriate and crass for US citizens to use it for something so frivolous and unimportant. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cbs-apologizes-for-filming-amazing-race-near-b-52-memorial-in-vietnam/653921.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cbs-apologizes-for-filming-amazing-race-near-b-52-memorial-in-vietnam/653921.md?page=5)